dinwiddie's Profile
Looking for a wine recommendation
I think the Ste Catherine would be a bit sweet for these dishes. (I recently had an '07 and it was quite sweet.) I probably go for a white Burg or Chablis. Of course, a Pinot Noir would go well with both the chicken and the salmon. Because it is a wedding and I assume you are on a budget I'd recommend a Louis Latour Pouilly-Fuisse or a Joseph Drouhin Chablis Pouilly-Fuisse or a William Fevre Chablis Champs Royaux.
Near Fairmont Hotel, Washington, DC
We keep getting requests for places "within walking distance" on this board. DC is a very small city in area and has a very good METRO system. So to go out to dinner, don't limit yourself. Within a few stops you can find lots of great places to eat.
1990 Château Suduiraut
It certainly was. The funny thing was that I was joking with our server that the wine was probably as old as she was. She looked at the bottle and asked what month it would have been picked. When I said probably September or so, she said, Well I'm a couple of months older than it is.
2007 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
Not yet. I think I'll wait a little while. So much other wine I want to drink too, that I'm in no hurry to open this one.
Dinner Recs in The Silver Spring Area
It depends on what you like and how fancy you want to be. It also depends on if you have a car, willing to take the METRO, etc.
Downdown SS
8407 kitchen bar - Modern American/eclectic. Nice vibe, lots of light, decent wine list.
Ghar-E-Kabab - pretty decent Indian food
Ray's the Classics- Good steaks, good bar and lounge
Jackie's - Warehouse meets 60s bubble-gum pop, good beers, talented chef, very nice Bar around attached called Sidecar
Addis Ababa - Pretty good Ethiopian food (a staple of ethnic food in DC) to get better you would have to go downtown
Quarry House Tavern - great big burger and lots of beer
Mandalay - pretty good Burmese food
I'd also suggest being willing to go downtown on the METRO to eat if you are willing. Lots of good places to eat in DC
2007 Domaine Weinbach Riesling Schlossberg Cuvée Ste. Catherine L'Inédit!
If anything sweeter than I remembered from before. Nice pale gold with nice legs. Quite sweet but with a nice core acidity. Flavors of apricots, golden delicious apples, and lychee. Nice finish. I think I will keep the final two in the back of the cellar and see what they are like in 10 years.
2007 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
A very, very nice wine, but not as impressive as some previous vintages of the Sonoma Coast bottling. Nose of cherries, spice, and stone. My son loved the nose and could have spent the evening just smelling it. Nice crisp acidity, lots of dark fruit with some loamy tones. Definitely a very good wine, but not quite up to the '06. Of course, compared to anything but another KB it is killer. Everyone at the restaurant loved it, and the Chef even built a tasting menu around it (and the other two wines we brought) for us. There is a reason that I continue to buy Kosta Browne year after year.
1990 Château Suduiraut
We took this to dinner for my birthday on the chance we would get Foie Gras, and to have with dessert if we did not. As it turned out, we had it with both.
Definitely mature, it was golden brown and had a wonderful nose of honey, toast and almonds. Great flavors of honey, caramel, toasted almonds and apricots. Went perfectly with the Foie Gras. I wish I had more.
Cedar, 8th and E Street NW, Washington DC
We went out last Saturday to celebrate my birthday. I had originally planned on going to Taberna del Alabardero but decided I didn't want to be that formal and canceled the reservation and made one at Cedar. I had never been but friends had recommended it. I called and asked about the corkage policy and was told that it would be $25 per bottle and please do not bring something that is on their wine list. That is about normal for DC on a Saturday night.
When we arrived they were most accommodating. I had requested that I have a table rather than a booth when I made my reservation on OpenTable. When we got there we were shown to a hidden niche that had two booths both of which had a chair on one side. I indicated that I found that uncomfortable (and since I was dining with my wife and son, not a mistress or spy) was it possible to sit someplace else. They asked for a moment then set up a table for us sort of in the bar but to the side. It turned out to be perfect.
We were looking at the menus, my son and I noted that we really were interested in the tasting menu, but also really wanted the Foie Gras. The server (a very nice, personable, and really young lady) said that they could vary the tasting menu. She then asked if we were interested in having the chef put together a tasting menu to go specifically with the wines we brought. We said yes, but asked if it would be possible for just my son and I have the tasting menu because my wife would not want to eat that much. After consulting with the chef, she said they could do that.
So we opted for a 7 course tasting and my wife for a three course one; hers to include the Cedar Roasted Salmon, ours to include Foie Gras. The server then took the wines back to the chef for him to taste, and to build our meals around.
The wines I brought with me were:
2007 Domaine Weinbach Riesling Schlossberg Cuvée Ste. Catherine L'Inédit!
2007 Kosta Browne Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir (the restaurant decanted the wine for us when we arrived.)
1990 Chateau Sudiraut Sauterne (375ml) (for the Foie and dessert)
The meal started with an amuse-bouche of a lamb sausage tart. Spicy, lightly gamy, and just right.
The first courses to go with the Reisling were (for my son and me)
Strawberry Salad, mixed spring greens, stilton, pickled fennel, strawberry balsamic, black pepper meringues
Lobster and White Chocolate Soup
Rabbit sausage on a bed of trumpet mushrooms
For my wife
House Smoked Carolina Trout with a salad of asparagus, lemon creme fraiche, phyllo, watercress
The next course, to go with the Sauterne was
Foie Gras au Torchon with grilled pineapple, banana nut toast, pomegranate molasses. My son and I both agreed that it was fantastic.
To go with the Kosta Browne
For my wife, Cedar Roasted Salmon with barley, bacon and root vegetable risotto.
For son and me, Grass Fed Beef Tenderloin with horseradish-potato puree, Swiss chard, pickled ramps, and burgundy jus. I would have preferred it to be rare rather than medium rare, but it was tender, delicious, and went perfectly with the wine.
Next came a course of 6 artisianal cheeses. The chef came out to explain them to us. Stand outs were the San Andreas, a semi-firm, raw sheep cheese, the Grayson, a semi-soft, raw cow milk cheese that was perfect for stinky cheese lovers, and the Stilton Colston Bassett.
Deserts were
For my son a Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Bar with candied hazelnuts and gianduja ice cream
For my wife a goat cheese cheese cake, and for me a lemon pana cotta with blackberry filling.
Service could not have been better. It was friendly, discrete, and very efficient. Everyone went out of their way to make us feel welcome and to make sure that everything went right. We shared the wines with our server (she loved the Sudiraut that was as old as she was), the owner, and the Chef.
By the end of the meal we were stuffed, had spent 2 and a half hours enjoying ourselves, and decided that Cedar is definitely worth more hype than it is getting. We could not have been treated better, found more accommodating hosts, or enjoyed ourselves more. We will definitely be back.
Dining near the Renaissance Downtown DC and a random question
Second Corduroy, the food and service are amazing. But I wouldn't limit myself to walking distance, the METRO is right there, easy to use, and will take you to some really great places to eat. Search the boards for suggestions in Cleveland Park, Penn Quarter, Dupont Circle, etc. then figure out how to get there on the METRO.
However, the METRO does not go to Georgetown.
What do producers/wineries do with their peaked wines?
If they were selling a 2000 Merlot, it is very possible that the wine shop found it stuck in its warehouse somewhere and needed to get rid of it, or they got it at a good deal from someone else. I once was in a wine shop (many years ago before the shop had a computerized system for inventory) and found a very good deal on a 10 year old Cabernet that the owner told me had been mistakenly stacked under some boxes of records in their warehouse and they found it when they were cleaning out the papers.
Soft Shell Crabs in DC
They were the special at Central last night. Appetizer or entree.
Great food great scene ideas wanted for Washington dc
Depends on what you mean by awesome. DC is a great place for ethnic foods of all types, and has a very good fine dining scene. So depending on what you want, we can give you some recommendations. However, some places are very hard reservations to get.
So I'd recommend:
Indian - Rasika
Spanish - Taberna del Alabardero
Tapas/Small Plates - Zaytinya, Bar Pilar
Beer Centric - Brasserie Beck (Belgian), Birch & Barley/ChurchKey
Fine Dining - Palena, The Source, Corduroy, CityZen, Fiola, Citronelle
Ethiopian - Etete, Ethiopic
The reservation to get if you can but don't bet on it - Komi, MiniBar
Offering the chef a glass of wine
I think I tend to agree with zin1953 (as usual) in that I offer a taste of what I bring to the server as a matter of course. Usually they taste, sometimes they decline. IF I know the chef or owner, I always tell the server that I'd like to offer a glass to them if they are so inclined and let them decide.
As I noted before in this forum, I believe that wine is best when shared and I tend to offer tastes of whatever I bring to whoever is interested. I've been know to share wine with folks at the table next to me when they inquired as to what I was drinking. One of my fondest memories of a meal was at a very nice BYO in Montreal where we ended up sharing several bottles of wine back and forth with the table next to us just because we both inquired as to the wines the other table had opened. They got to taste some of my small production California wines, and I got to taste some very nice and old Bordeaux and Port. We parted friends and managed to have dinner together the next time we visited the city.
Need Dinner Recommendations for Bethesda Area
I wouldn't limit myself to Bethesda. Where you are is less than 20 minutes from downtown DC, and if you are willing to go the METRO route, drive over to the closest stop (Probably Grovsnor) and take the red line to a slew of much better restaurants than you will find in Bethesda. Besides, parking in Bethesda proper is a major pain.
If you must go to Bethesda, Black's Bar and Kitchen 7750 Woodmont Avenue is good (not inexpensive) and has a parking deck right next door.
Standardisation in bottle sizes and shapes?
There is a lot of variety in the shape of bottles, but there is a fair amount of standardization too.
The high shouldered, flat sided 'Bordeaux Bottle' is used by most wineries for Cabernet Sauvignon , Merlot, Malbec and most Meritage or Bordeaux blends. This is because those are the key grape varieties that are allowed for use in red wines from the Bordeaux region. When new world producers started bottling these wines, they used the Bordeaux bottle to try to replicate the cache of Bordeaux. The Bordeaux bottle is also generally used for Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon as these are the primary grape varieties allowed in the production of white wines in Bordeaux.
The slope shouldered 'Burgundy Bottle' is generally used for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir around the world. These are the two key grape varieties used in the Burgundy region of France for white and red wine production. This shape is also used for many Loire Valley wines. Again, because this was producers wanted to use a bottle that was recognizable.
The tall Alsace bottle or the 'Hoch Bottle' is also used in Germany (green in the Mosel and brown in the Rhine.) It is used by wineries in many parts of the world for several grape varieties including Riesling and Gewurztraminer.
Champagne bottles have a classic shape, but a lot of producers use a shorter, fatter variation. The same goes for Port, there is a classic shape that most producers use, but I've see variations.
Wat Thai Songkran Festival
Actually due to the fact that there is amazing Thai food available in MoCo year round, I tend to avoid this festival, and I live nearby. However, every year the crowds and traffic get progressively worse. It is a fun festival, but I quit going years ago. Now I go get Thai food in Wheaton instead.
More "Fun" Wine Experiences
I have a tendency to BYO a lot and to try to go to places where I am going to get a decent wine glass. However, I have friends who go so far as to bring their own glasses with them when they take a bottle (or 3) with them to a restaurant. One day we were having dinner when the table next to us asked the same question, why do they get such nice glasses? My friend immediately pulled out two more glasses and offered them to the couple to use. You never saw such shocked look as was on the face of the wife. But they did accept and as it turned out, they started attending some of our gatherings later in the year.
On two waiting lists - suggestions for something new to us and delicious?
I'd also take a look at Palena.
a bed and breakfast?
Maryland and Virginia have literally hundreds of B and Bs. How much do you want to spend? Do you have any particular activities in mind? Urban vs country. With a great restaurant, or do you want to go out somewhere too. How far will you travel since it is quite a wide area, from Maryland mountains to the eastern shore to the Tidewater of VA.
The ones d with d suggested are good, and very much higher end.
Stemware from C&B?
I bought some Schott Zwiesel titanium crystal glasses at C&B last year for within your price range. Personally I love them, and they are hard to break. I've dropped them (not recommended) and they didn't break. They are dishwasher safe, etc. I can't say enough for them, and they are definitely less likely to break than some other stemware I have that cost much more.
You might look online at Brentwood Wine company, they have the whole line for very reasonable prices.
TN: 2006 A.P.VIN Rancho Ontiveros Pinot Noir
Excellent wine. Popped (unscrewed?) and poured, it took about an hour to open up and really show its stuff. Very nice nose. Not at all hot, very smooth and easy to drink. Just the right amount of acidity, it went well with the spiced pork chops we had for dinner. Lots of dark cherry, a little orange peel, cola and spice. this was my last bottle and I wish it wasn't.
White or Red, Which Would You Jettison ?
Just the opposite, whites would go, regretfully, and I'd keep the reds.
TN - 2005 Karl Lawrence Cabernet Sauvignon
This was the Napa, not one of the single vineyard cabs. I've had the To-Kalon from '05 and it was magnificent.
TN - 2005 Karl Lawrence Cabernet Sauvignon
I've been buying it on allocation from the winery since 1997, so I get a break. Depending on where you live it can range from $55 (CA) to $75 (NY) a bottle. I'd expect that it would be more toward the higher end unless someone was putting it on sale for some reason.
TN - 2005 Karl Lawrence Cabernet Sauvignon
Wonderful wine. Nice balance, well integrated tannins, loads of dark fruits, currants, and a little tobacco box. Just the right touch of vanilla oak char. Nice mouthfeel, medium to long finish. Drinking very well and even better than the last time I opened one 6 months ago. Definitely a fantastic Napa Cab that for the price is hard to beat. Easily as good as many $100+ bottles.
Dim Sum
I think that a general consensus would be that New Fortune or Oriental East are probably the best in terms of the food. I used to love Hollywood East on the Boulevard, but find that they have gone down hill ever since they moved to the mall. However, they do have some interesting things you can't get anywhere else. I give New Fortune (Gaithersburg) the edge because it is easier to get into and have more choices, at least on Sunday which is the only day I go. Silver Fountain is reliable and for me convenient, but the choices are not what you get at New Fortune. I haven't been to Good Fortune in Wheaton in years so I can't say how they are. As others have noted, A&J is northern dim sum, mostly fried stuff and not at all to my taste. I've been a couple of times and have no interest in going again. They are very good for what they are, but I much prefer the Cantonese style dim sum so I go elsewhere.
Is it appropriate to bring a winemaker's wine to share when going out to dinner with them?
I have to agree with craig_g. Short story. I was at dinner with Mark Neal of Neal Family Vineyards. Because I didn't think it was appropriate to bring one of his wines I didn't. I told him that I had considered bringing a bottle of his Chard, but didn't for the reason mentioned. His wife leaned over and said, "I wish you had, we don't have any left." A few years later I again had dinner with Mark, this time I brought the bottle of Chard and we enjoyed it immensely. As it turns out there were only 4 bottles of the Chard left in the DC area.
2002 Match Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon
I love Randy Sloan's wines. This just keeps getting better. Lovely garnet color. Notes of cassis, tobacco and cedar on the nose. Wonderful flavors of dark fruits, spice, dark chocolate and cedar and a hint of juniper berry. Nice long finish, good mouthfeel, well integrated with fine tannins. Not overtly oaky but a wonderful toastiness is there. I wish I had more than only two more bottles in the cellar.
TN: 2008 Cascade Cliffs Barbera Estate Grown (Columbia River, Oregon)
Purchased in October during a visit to the winery.
Lovely dark purple, almost but not quite inky. Much lighter than one would think from the color. Probably should let this stay in the cellar for a couple of years to develop its full potential. Lovely flavors of black cherry, cassis, and raspberries. Nice acidity and balance. Went wonderfully with the linguini bolognese that my son made for dinner.
